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21st Century Breakdown in American Idiot play?


Trent Frederick

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There are numerous things that bugged me about the play. Though they could be argued, the one I can't stand is 21st songs being played in AMERICAN IDIOTs play...Does this not bother anyone else? I mean I am thoroughly confused as to why they decided this was a good idea when they are two completely different stories. I didn't mind the extra songs (Favorite Son, To Much To Soon, When Its Time) because they adjusted the story. Its like if Divergence had a couple of scenes with Katniss in it. Also Extraordinary Girl and Whatsername are the same people, not 2 different ones.

I know it sounds like I am just complaining but nobody I know even cares about Green Day so I wanted to get this off my chest with people who liked them xP

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The choice to add some songs from 21st Century Breakdown into the show was to help expand the story a bit more. 21st Century Breakdown doesn't really tell a story unlike American Idiot, so adding the songs into the show doesn't make them out of place or anything.

We all know that the Extraordinary Girl is the same as Whatsername in the album version of the story. The musical story was adapted from the album and had a few things changed, such as adding in new characters to the story. To be able to give Tunny a love interest they needed to adapt Extraordinary Girl into a new character so the song could be used for them.

The story can be interpreted in many different ways depending on the person. The musical was written by Michael Mayer AND Billie Joe, so he approved of the new characters in the show.

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I see what you're getting at, but I agree with what Liam said. Plus I think the songs they picked from Breakdown are appropriate and fit in with the themes of American Idiot really well anyway. If they'd thrown something like East Jesus Nowhere in there then maybe not so much, but everything seems fairly appropriate to me. Of all the things to criticise the musical for, I don't think song choice is one.

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I thought there was a very clear storyline to 21st Century Breakdown and don't understand why they put songs in AI either. At least I always thought that there was a clear storyline. It makes sense too if you listen to the songs. It's a Christian and Gloria journey.

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I see what you're getting at, but I agree with what Liam said. Plus I think the songs they picked from Breakdown are appropriate and fit in with the themes of American Idiot really well anyway. If they'd thrown something like East Jesus Nowhere in there then maybe not so much, but everything seems fairly appropriate to me. Of all the things to criticise the musical for, I don't think song choice is one.

i think east jesus nowhere would be great in it that being said i hate the play so you can disregard my words..

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I thought there was a very clear storyline to 21st Century Breakdown and don't understand why they put songs in AI either. At least I always thought that there was a clear storyline. It makes sense too if you listen to the songs. It's a Christian and Gloria journey.

Billie has said in a few different interviews that 21st Century Breakdown isn't a concept album like American Idiot. It just has two different characters.

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I thinked the songs they choose to put in the play that came from 21CB just helped enhance the story line... Ugh it's late so my mind is not 100% but 21 guns was needed in the play when whatsername was questioning whether to stay with Johnny. And the only other song I could think of is the mashup of Last of the American girls and she's a rebel- which is just so damn cool..

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The storyline of American Idiot the album and the storyline of American Idiot the musical aren't the same thing and they're not supposed to be. In the musical they took the basic storyline of the album and expanded it into a different, much bigger story with new characters and events. It isn't supposed to just be a musical play of the album, it's a totally new and different musical play based on an interpretation of the album. In that context adding some extra songs that the director and band felt helped support the musical storyline isn't surprising at all, they added all kinds of new things not just songs, because it was a new project.

I thought there was a very clear storyline to 21st Century Breakdown and don't understand why they put songs in AI either. At least I always thought that there was a clear storyline. It makes sense too if you listen to the songs. It's a Christian and Gloria journey.

I agree that it can be viewed as a journey of the two characters, but it isn't a linear storyline that you can follow with clear events being described, just a loose journey of the characters. The band have said when asked that it isn't a rock opera or story. I think it's interesting to interpret it as kind of a story just from the different moods of and things the characters do in the songs in the order the band put them in to make them feel like a journey, but it doesn't have an actual storyline in the same sense that American Idiot does.

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Its like if Divergence had a couple of scenes with Katniss in it.

Am I supposed to know what that simile means?

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Am I supposed to know what that simile means?

Well Divergent (to give it its actual name) is a dystopian novel aimed at young adults. Katniss is the main character in The Hunger Games, which is also a dystopian novel aimed at young adults.

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Well Divergent (to give it its actual name) is a dystopian novel aimed at young adults. Katniss is the main character in The Hunger Games, which is also a dystopian novel aimed at young adults.

I love crossovers! I bet that would be cool.

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The choice to add some songs from 21st Century Breakdown into the show was to help expand the story a bit more. 21st Century Breakdown doesn't really tell a story unlike American Idiot, so adding the songs into the show doesn't make them out of place or anything.

We all know that the Extraordinary Girl is the same as Whatsername in the album version of the story. The musical story was adapted from the album and had a few things changed, such as adding in new characters to the story. To be able to give Tunny a love interest they needed to adapt Extraordinary Girl into a new character so the song could be used for them.

The story can be interpreted in many different ways depending on the person. The musical was written by Michael Mayer AND Billie Joe, so he approved of the new characters in the show.

I thinked the songs they choose to put in the play that came from 21CB just helped enhance the story line... Ugh it's late so my mind is not 100% but 21 guns was needed in the play when whatsername was questioning whether to stay with Johnny. And the only other song I could think of is the mashup of Last of the American girls and she's a rebel- which is just so damn cool..

The storyline of American Idiot the album and the storyline of American Idiot the musical aren't the same thing and they're not supposed to be. In the musical they took the basic storyline of the album and expanded it into a different, much bigger story with new characters and events. It isn't supposed to just be a musical play of the album, it's a totally new and different musical play based on an interpretation of the album. In that context adding some extra songs that the director and band felt helped support the musical storyline isn't surprising at all, they added all kinds of new things not just songs, because it was a new project.

I agree that it can be viewed as a journey of the two characters, but it isn't a linear storyline that you can follow with clear events being described, just a loose journey of the characters. The band have said when asked that it isn't a rock opera or story. I think it's interesting to interpret it as kind of a story just from the different moods of and things the characters do in the songs in the order the band put them in to make them feel like a journey, but it doesn't have an actual storyline in the same sense that American Idiot does.

I agree with you guys with the whole, makes the story fleshier. I mean sure I was biting my lip sometimes but regardless of source material being scattered a bit, I think that it worked very well to! I mean the only song that did give me a problem was the crossover from Favorite Son and Are We the Waiting; but that's me just being tedious x) My girlfriend never really listened to Green Day so she thought the play was perfect. So of course I am not saying the play was bad, I loved St. Jimmies entrance. Thats exactly how I thought of his character. But to direct this next part to Liam. Wasn't Tunny the one that sent the Tre' Cool part letter to Jimmy? In the play it was Will's ex's husband (?) which I know my previous statements have been nit pickey but I thought this was obvious? Haha

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It would have been a very short musical if extra songs were not added. They needed the extra songs to fill it out. Also the 21st Century Breakdown songs they did add dont metion character names so they are easily adapted to fit a different story.

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Billie has said in a few different interviews that 21st Century Breakdown isn't a concept album like American Idiot. It just has two different characters.

lol @ trusting what Billie says

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Billie has said in a few different interviews that 21st Century Breakdown isn't a concept album like American Idiot. It just has two different characters.

Even if they didn't all follow the sociopolitical theme that they do, just having two characters followed throughout would be sufficient to make it a concept album.

Maybe he just thinks all concept albums are rock operas? I'm not sure he even said "it's not a concept album" anyway, I don't remember that. Just that it wasn't a story like AI is.

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Even if they didn't all follow the sociopolitical theme that they do, just having two characters followed throughout would be sufficient to make it a concept album.

Maybe he just thinks all concept albums are rock operas? I'm not sure he even said "it's not a concept album" anyway, I don't remember that. Just that it wasn't a story like AI is.

Yeah I think he said it's not a rock opera (or rather someone asked if it was and he said no, and elaborated that it's not a story like AI), don't think he mentioned "concept album".

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It would have been a very short musical if extra songs were not added. They needed the extra songs to fill it out. Also the 21st Century Breakdown songs they did add dont metion character names so they are easily adapted to fit a different story.

Actually, there was basically no dialogue, just music. They could have had dialogue to help add depth to Tunny and Will. Also, if you add up the 6 21st CB songs, its only about 15-18 minutes. That could totally be cut out for dialogue.

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Actually, there was basically no dialogue, just music. They could have had dialogue to help add depth to Tunny and Will. Also, if you add up the 6 21st CB songs, its only about 15-18 minutes. That could totally be cut out for dialogue.

They could be cut out (just like a thousand other things could be cut out or changed) but there's no reason why they should be. The aim wasn't to make the musical as much like the album as possible, they wanted it to be different, with new and different songs, characters, events and dance moves etc added lol. If it was supposed to stick to the album as much as possible then adding 21st CB songs would be a failing, but that was never their aim so it isn't.

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Actually, there was basically no dialogue, just music. They could have had dialogue to help add depth to Tunny and Will. Also, if you add up the 6 21st CB songs, its only about 15-18 minutes. That could totally be cut out for dialogue.

Yes but Michael Mayer made the conscious decision to tell the story through the music and the acting/visuals on stage. So more music was needed, it works this way has lasted 5 years doing so, it may have worked with dialog too but this is the decision the director made with the approval of the band.

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